Greening my home: How do I reduce my energy footprint?

Why we must think of energy efficient life style?

Construction industry in India is growing at a rate of 9.2 per cent per annum as against the world average of 5.5 per cent per annum. The construction industry is also nearly 10 percent of the GDP. It is one of the largest in terms of economic expenditure, use of raw materials and environmental impacts.

Buildings are the nucleus of urban consumption – water, energy and material, and, are also responsible for enormous wastes. Demand for housing and commercial space will escalate in India, and lock up enormous carbon and energy. Already the residential and commercial sector consumes more than a quarter of the total electrical supply usage of the country and major portion of this is utilized in the buildings. Malls, multiplexes, housing conglomerates are springing in cities. An effective environmental management of building provides the opportunity for intensive demand management to reduce overall footprint of urban consumption of water and energy and minimise waste.

Change begins in our own home – with little steps. What can each one of us do to green our homes? How can we reduce the energy imprint of our buildings, our living? How do we know what works and how? There are a range of products that we can select and use starting from efficient lighting products such as compact fluorescent lamp, light emitting diode bulbs, solar products such as water heaters, cookers, lantern, home lighting system, rooftop system, energy efficient appliances such as refrigerators, TFLs, air conditioners etc. But we know so little about them. Why don’t we start to look at them one by one and understand why will this help to reduce our energy budget and make our home and our city sustainable.

LIGHTING

Do you know lighting accounts for almost 20 per cent of the monthly electricity bill in many households? Energy saving can make a considerable difference to our household budget.

RENEWABLES

We have all heard about the potential of solar power. But it is not as esoteric as you think. You can bring sun power to your home.